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Fajitas is a popular Tex-Mex dish made from marinated, grilled skirt steak that is served in a wheat flour tortilla. The earliest printed mention of the word fajita referring to food appeared in 1971, and ten years later it had become one of the most popular dishes of Tex-Mex cuisine.
The word fajita is derived from the Spanish faja, meaning girdle or strip, referring to a cheap cut of beef covering the diaphragm that was considered somewhat undesirable by many locals. In the 1930s, Mexican ranch workers used to tenderize the skirt steak by pounding and marinating it in lime juice before cooking it over an open fire and serving the meat in a wheat tortilla along with numerous condiments.
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The most popular food of the Southern cuisine, fried chicken is the theme of many arguments where everyone involved seems to have a favorite, be it what their mothers used to make, a cult roadside eatery, or a bygone restaurant. However, it is universally agreed that the meat must be moist, succulent, and tender, coated with a crunchy, golden-brown crust.
It all started during the colonization period, when Scottish immigrants settled in the South, bringing their fried chicken recipes along. The African slaves then introduced new seasonings and spices, and the dish quickly gained popularity. Typical seasonings include salt, pepper, and hot chiles, and the pieces of meat should be edible by hand so that the consumer can bite both the crust and the meat at the same time.
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One of the hallmarks of traditional American cuisine is the classic pecan pie. It consists of a thin pastry crust that is topped with a mixture of eggs, butter, flour, a sweetener such as brown sugar, syrup, or molasses, and a handful of halved or chopped pecans.
When baked, pecan pie should have the consistency of a thick, silky custard with a pronounced caramel taste. When it initially appeared in written form at the end of the 19th century, it was mostly associated with the American South, but today it represents an authentic American dessert, traditionally prepared on Thanksgiving Day.
MOST ICONIC Pecan Pie
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One of the staples of the Southern U.S. cuisine called chicken fried steak contains no chicken at all, contrary to what one might think upon seeing the name of the dish. It consists of a thin, breaded, and fried cut of beef that is traditionally served with a side of mashed potatoes and drizzled with cream gravy.
The dish got its name due to the fact that the method of preparation is very similar to that of fried chicken. Originally, the first recipes for batter-fried steaks had appeared in Southern cookbooks during the early 1800s. In the old days, the cut of beef was inexpensive and tough, usually round steak, but today many restaurants use more expensive cuts such as tenderloin and rib-eye.
MOST ICONIC Chicken Fried Steak
This Lone Star culinary treasure is quite simple – a tortilla stuffed with traditional breakfast ingredients, depending on personal preferences: processed yellow cheese, pork, and eggs are just some of the most common ingredients used in the preparation of breakfast tacos.
However, there is a huge food fight regarding this taco variety, with Austin and San Antonio both claiming the dish as their own. It is speculated that breakfast tacos were a staple in San Antonio a long time ago, but locals used to simply call it breakfast, while Austin had given the dish its current name.
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Texas-style barbecue is an American barbecue style that can be divided into 4 separate subcategories: Central Texas, East Texas, South Texas, and West Texas barbecue.
The best-known variety is the Central Texas-style that originated in the Czech and German meat markets in the late 19th century.
This barbecue style is typically associated with cooking brisket (the fattier portion is called point, while the leaner portion is called flat) low and slow, usually over post oak fire. The meat is seasoned with salt, pepper, and maybe a bit of cayenne or garlic powder.
VARIATIONS OF Texas-style barbecue
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East Texas-style barbecue is an American barbecue style characterized by the acceptance of pork (along with the ever-popular Texas beef) and an emphasis on barbecue sauce. Pork ribs and smoked boudin are staples of East Texas-style barbecue, typically served on a bun, while the sides include some interesting things such as greens, fried okra, and banana pudding.
MOST ICONIC East Texas-Style Barbecue
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Fried chicken and waffles is an unlikely, but much loved pairing of sweet and salty flavors and soft and crunchy textures. The dish is thought to have originated with the African Americans in the South who rarely had a chance to eat chicken and waffles, so it was a meal that was eaten at special occasions on African American dining tables.
Some food historians claim that chicken and waffles evolved after the Civil War migration of Southern African Americans to the North. However, the modern version of the dish was first served in Harlem, New York as early as the 1930s, mostly in jazz nightclubs.
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A breakfast sandwich refers to any kind of sandwich filled with foods that are usually considered a breakfast staple such as cured meats, eggs, cheese, and various types of bread. Before the explosion of breakfast sandwiches in the United States, they were often consumed by factory workers of the 19th century London, where they were called bap sandwiches, named after the soft (and back then, often slightly stale) rolls filled with fried eggs, crispy bacon, and melted cheese.
During the industrial revolution, the breakfast sandwich became popular in the USA, filled with eggs, green peppers, onions, and ham. It was a staple of blue-collar workers, and the first recipe can be found in a cookbook that was published in 1897.
VARIATIONS OF Breakfast Sandwich
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What started as a simple fisherman's dish made with shrimp cooked in bacon grease, then served over creamy grits is today a cult Southern dish due to the fact that Craig Claiborne mentioned it in the New York Times in 1985, after he tried the dish at Crook's Corner, a restaurant in North Carolina.
That version of shrimp and grits was made by a chef called Bill Neal, who also added mushrooms, bacon, and cheddar cheese into the dish. Today, there are numerous variations of the dish found throughout the South, with added hot spices, barbecue sauces, tomatoes, and fried eggs.
MOST ICONIC Shrimp and grits
